1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a system for entering and accumulating information about individual employees for accounting and payroll purposes. In particular, the present invention is concerned with a system for permitting employees to clock in and out from work on remotely located card reading time clocks, which are interactively connected to a central computer, and which are capable of displaying messages generated by the central computer.
2. Description of the Related Technology
The traditional manner an employer records and accounts for the time its hourly employees work is by keeping a daily log of the hours that each employee is present at the workplace. The hours that an employee works per day are typically determined by recording the time at which the employee arrives and leaves the workplace. The completed log is then given to an accounting department to determine accumulated wages earned by each employee for a given pay period.
In many workplaces, the employee is responsible for keeping track of his or her own arrival and departure times. The employee typically logs their arrival and departure time on a time sheet and a supervisor then verifies that the logged times are indeed accurate. In this method, a supervisor has to review the time sheets on a regular basis to ensure their accuracy, which can become a burdensome task if the supervisor has a large number of time sheets to review.
As an alternative to handwritten log entries, a time clock is often used to record the arrival and departure times of each employee at the workplace. Typically the employee will "punch" a time card on arrival and departure from the workplace, the time clock thereby date and time stamps the time card. However, the time clock has its own disadvantages. The supervisor still has to review the punched time cards for each employee to verify that the employee worked the hours he punched. The time clock does not reduce the amount of paper work that must be transmitted to the accounting department for the ultimate good of preparing the employee's paycheck. Even with the time clock, an individual time card for each employee must be collected and delivered to the accounting department where the time data is manually input into either accounting ledgers or a computer system.
Furthermore, there is often only one time clock which is located at the employee's entrance or in a location where the employees don't actually work, e.g., in a lunch room or in a locker room. It often takes a significant amount of time for an employee to transit between the location of the time clock and their actual work station and, hence, employees are often paid for time that they did not actually work. From the employer's perspective, the money paid to the employee for such non-productive time is wasteful.
If the employer employs a large number of hourly employees, the amount of money paid for non-productive time can constitute a significant sum. Generally, the only way that the employer can minimize the amount of non-productive time is for the supervisors of the employees to require the employees be at their assigned posts as soon as possible after clocking in. This mandate, however, can result in poor relations between supervisors and employees. Further, the supervisor may end up spending an inordinate amount of time 1 attempting to get employees to their work stations when they could be performing other, more valuable, tasks.
Another problem with traditional time entry and accounting systems is that they are inflexible. Oftentimes any change in routine will require additional work by supervisors and a substantial amount of paper work. For example, in workplaces which employ many hourly workers performing different jobs, an employee hired and paid to perform one job may be asked to perform a different job during the course of a workday. In many cases, rules established by the employer through collective bargaining agreements, or in response to governmental regulations require that a worker performing a job different than the one they were originally hired to perform, be paid a different hourly wage. These changes can result in additional paper work for the supervisor who is authorizing the change as well as additional work for the accounting department who must change the accounting records accordingly. For example, the supervisor must approve of the transfer based on the qualifications of the worker, and inform the accounting department of the change and the hours worked so that the accounting department can properly adjust the employee's pay. The employee may be working for a different supervisor than usual. Hence, this new supervisor will also have to review the hours that the employee logged on a time sheet to verify the accuracy of the hours.
Similarly, in many workplaces where employees are working for different departments or on different projects, there may be a need to keep track of the amount of money that each of the various departments or projects are costing the company. Again, if an employee is working for a department or project other than the one to which they were originally assigned, or if an employee is working on a special project, extra paper work is generated so that the accounting department can account for the hours the employee works on a particular project.
A further disadvantage of prior timekeeping systems, and in large workplaces especially, is that interaction between the management and the employees at the beginning and end of shifts is limited. Clearly, the time when an employee is either arriving or leaving work is an ideal time to either pass information to or receive information from the employee. In some workplaces, the supervisor is required to be present at the time clock when the employee is logging in or out for just this purpose. However, even in these workplaces, the supervisor is unable to pass current information between the employee and management at that time as typically, the supervisor is out of contact with management. In very large companies, if management, or the accounting department, wishes to either pass information along to the employee or obtain information from the employee, the management must inform the supervisor a day in advance in order for the supervisor to be able to contact the employee.
Additionally, employers oftentimes provide their employees with an on-site cafeteria where the employees are permitted to purchase food and drinks during the course of the workday. Sometimes, the employers will provide a meal to the employees during the course of their working hours either for free or for a subsidized price. In certain companies, the employer will also permit the employee to pay for items purchased by having the aggregate amount taken out of their pay check at the end of the pay period. Oftentimes, the employee is only entitled to a meal if he is working a specific shift, or only when he has worked a requisite number of hours.
In these workplaces there is a need to account for the value of the items purchased or consumed by the employee. In traditional accounting systems, additional paper work must be generated to ensure that the proper amount is deducted from the paycheck of the employee, or to keep track of the number of meals that the employee has consumed. This paper work then must be interpreted by the accounting department and entered into the correct accounting ledger or computer so that the records are accurately maintained. In many workplaces providing such a service, the employee's supervisor must review the cafeteria records to ensure that the employee in his department or division was entitled to a meal in the cafeteria. This review of the cafeteria records can be yet another burdensome paper work task for the supervisor. Finally, the records generated in the cafeteria for each employee must then be transmitted to the accounting department for manual entry into either accounting ledgers or a computerized system.
Hence, a need exists for a timekeeping and accounting system that accounts for the hours that each employee has worked on any of multiple assignments, and the incidental items and expenses that an employee may have deducted out of his pay, e.g., meals etc. The system should prevent generation of many separate pieces of paper work for each individual employee, and the supervisor's concomitant review. There is also a need for a timekeeping system which more accurately reflects the actual amount of time the employee worked. Further, there is also a need for a timekeeping system which can pass and receive information to and from employees while the employee is either logging in or out. Finally, there is a need for an integrated accounting system which can be used to automatically generate accounting records for both employee attendance as well as for the fringe benefits provided by the employer such as cafeterias.